Don't pass default options and remove redundant helpers. Fixes #473

[adarshaj]

• What kind of change does this PR introduce? (Bug fix, feature, docs update, ...)

Bug Fix

• What is the current behavior? (You can also link to an open issue here)

npm run build:prod fails (issue described in #473)

• What is the new behavior (if this is a feature change)?

Fixes #473, builds with gzip and compression level of 9 (defaults of compression-webpack-plugin)

• Other information:
  N/A

[PatrickJS]

thanks!